may 1999

R-Comp are working on a brand new port, this time of PC flight simulator F16 Fighting Falcon - take a look at the full preview

A new and original two-player maze game for RISC OS has been announced - check out the Castle Harenae preview. The author is also looking for people to test the game

Despite not having been on sale at the Wakefield show, Botkiller 2 is now finished and available for sale, with the first copies having already been shipped

14/5/99

A new God-game is under development for RISC OS. Darklands appears to be aiming to be an Acorn version of Civilisation, putting you in charge of humanity from conception through to medieval times, and there will also be the option to play set-piece battles as well. As time passes the range of items available for construction increases. From the late stone age onwards you can construct the farm building shown on the right here, for example. The author is aiming to make the game run reasonably on all RISC OS machines, whilst supporting the better capabilities of later machines. Take a look at a couple of screenshots.

In a frenzy of pre-Wakefield show activity R-Comp have released free updates for both Heretic and Doom+ (but not Hexen). The Heretic upgrade mainly fixes some of the bugs in the game (but having just tested it I see that one of the first few levels in the second episode still crashes the game if you fire in certain areas) and allows smoothed display of the floors. R-Comp haven't had time to fix the dial-up support, which is a shame, but apparently it may be looked at soon. Doom+, meanwhile, could now be described as Doom++, with many new features. Whilst none of these features are going to set the world alight, they do go further to set Acorn Doom amongst the best on any platform - check out the full list of improvements. The improved versions will also be on sale at Wakefield.

8/5/99

Even though Artex have pulled out of the Wakefield show next weekend (May 15th-16th) it's still possible that Botkiller 2 will be on sale there if an alternative stand to host the game can be found

R-Comp have announced that they are now selling Final Doom, a set of add-on levels for their existing Doom and Doom+ players - the original game is required to play these new episodes. Final Doom comes on CD-ROM with an installation disc, and is suitable for anyone who fancies a harder challenge than the original! R-Comp are selling the package for £15, which is five pounds above what you'd pay in a shop but then it does come with an Acorn install disc to make things nice and easy for you

Free bomb-laying battle game Infestation has been upgraded to version 3.33 and is available now from the author's website